Great article on our education system.

. . . low performance expectations coupled with narrowly defined vocational outcomes raise uncomfortable issues. It is impossible to talk of those at the bottom of the Singaporean educational system without acknowledging the dialectical tensions that exist within the wider society and educational culture which play out in schools and classrooms (Luke, 2005), principally, the tension between striving for excellence at the top while attempting to provide improving standards of education for all. [snip] In Singapore, students placed in the Normal Technical stream carry a social stigma that comes from being identified as being in the lowest stream in the education system. The Institute of Education has entered local lore for the corruption of its initials ITE as “It’s the End”. Parents’ hearts sink when their children are consigned to the stream. Their children’s climb up the ...